I'll collect seeds from open-pollinated spinach, three kinds of lettuce, leeks, green onions, and nasturtiums to plant later--though most of the green onion seeds will be planted in the garden this month.

I'll buy a few staples this month, but the rest of my $200 budget will be spent on produce, eggs, and meat that I find on sale.

There should be several good sales on meat around Father's Day.

Corn on the cob should go on sale this month; I'll look for sales of six and possibly eight ears for a dollar.

June is a hot month here; most days, if not every day, will be over 100°F/ 38C° (Monday will be 105°). We plan on eating lots of bean burritos, pasta salads (using a combination of sale produce and garden produce; I like my pasta salads to be more vegetables than noodles), homemade yogurt with homemade cranberry almond granola,

You can see my summer menu here. I don't follow my menus exactly; instead, I use them to plan my meals based on what is ripe in my garden, what I have in my pantry and freezer, and what I can add that is on sale.

Winco:

Milk

Greek yogurt (small container to use as a starter to make yogurt)

Spreadable margarine (3-pound tub for $2.27)

Flour tortillas

Potatoes

Onions

Smith's:

Ice cream (I buy the big buckets labeled "Kroger party pail" when they go on sale for $4.99 or less; sometimes the sale price is $4.49 and sometimes it is $3.99!)

Costco:

Almonds (our Sam's club appears to have stopped carrying almonds, so I'll have my mom pick some up at Costco for me)

Walmart:

Oxiclean spray

What seasonal recipes do you have planned for this month? What sales do you look for in June?

Comments

I love reading your monthly shopping plan. And I often reference your seasonal meal plans for ideas. Thank you. You are always an inspiration.

This month will see strawberries ripen. Our kids love the local you-pick patch. I'm hoping to pick twice what we did last year as we ran out of frozen berries in January.

Lettuce and spinach will soon be large enough to harvest.

I'll replant carrots that didn't come up and plant 8 tomato plants.

For shopping I will just be buying our basics: milk, bananas, oranges, and salad items. We will be moving in a couple months and so will be eating down the pantry and freezers. I've already found some items I'd forgotten about like frozen chopped celery. Great for soup!

Brandy you do so well planning ahead to stock your pantries at the best prices and I know from experience that it takes a lot of organisation to do so even for our small family of 2 empty nesters.

In the gardens we will be harvesting strawberries, turnips, silver beet, beetroot and carrots and we have 100kg of sweet potatoes we have harvested from the gardens we need to blanch and freeze along with any silver beet we have from the gardens. The sweet potato will supply the 2 of us for a year once we blanch and freeze it and the silver beet we are working on having the same level of supplies gradually too. We have bought very few vegetables in 3 years as we produce all of our own which is a huge saving in the budget.

At the moment here in Australia we are having seasonal sales on vitamins and minerals and pantry items as well as a lot of discount vouchers giving us 14.28 - 15% off the usual prices of generic brand pantry items that don't come on special so we have been taking advantage of those.

On one of these 14.28% off vouchers I have a credit of $87 on items they were out of stock on so will work on getting a few items to stock our pantry to a 12 month level on which will be -
- Tinned pears, tinned two fruits to a 12 month level and will add some more cocoa to get us closer to a 12 month level.

On our normal 2 monthly grocery shop we shopped ahead taking advantage of 14.28 - 15% off vouchers so need very little and used our pantry stocking budget to stock lots of items we usually use to a 12 month level and took advantage of quite a few 50% off specials on what we usually use to save more money too. Here is what we plan to get -
- Bread improver x 2.
- Cheese x 4.
- 1 x laundry liquid.

We are planning now to move out our grocery shopping to 3 monthly (except for dairy) as we have worked out one of our local supermarkets has 16.66% off vouchers once every 3 months online on eBay. To plan ahead we will put $100 a fortnight away and then buy the vouchers when they come out and use them then again taking advantage of any weekly specials to save more again.

With thinking outside of the normal we have found there is always ways to reduce your grocery costs.

Your garden plans sound so good and your the pictures of your produce and meals look amazing!

My little balcony garden is growing well, and I should be able to harvest the first strawberries soon! I can't wait to eat them with homemade yoghurt. I've already started harvesting and drying herbs especially oregano, and will pick some spearmint for sun teas as well. I'm hoping some peas will be ready by the end of the month too. I don't know when my blueberry bush will have fruit ready, but if it's ready by the end of the month, I'll likely make Brandy's clafoutis with some, and eat the rest fresh with homemade yoghurt.

Margaret, I have been making black bean tacos lately. They are very easy to make...just add taco seasonings and a bit of water to the black beans and cook until the beans are soft. Use the beans the same as "taco meat" and top with your favourite toppings. They taste amazing (and this is coming from someone who just recently started eating beans)!

Hi Margaret. Lentils and mushrooms for sure....but if you happen to have walnuts on hand, add those too. A little bit goes a long way for sure. (crushed to small pieces and lightly dry-toasted in a pan). The biggest necessity is some taco season--either a blend you already have or your favorite combination of chili powder, cumin, etc.

I’m laughing right now because I tried making tacos once with just mushrooms as the “meat” filling, and my husband hated them...bless his heart. Just asked him if he remembered, and he didn’t, so I guess it wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought it was. Whew!

Margaret, I cook up a mix at the end of the summer that I use as filling for lasagna, to add to spaghetti sauce. I have not used it for tacos. I dice up eggplants, zucchini, onions-red and yellow, bell peppers and garlic. Cook all in olive oil. The eggplant makes a kind of meaty substitute. One of the 3 main reasons I grow eggplants.

Most of my family does not like melons (except for my husband). They are a challenge to grow in our climate. I have tried them before. They take a lot of space (which I don't have) and like squash, tomatoes, and peppers, stop flowering in the summer. I have planted squash seeds just recently with hopes that the plants will grow large enough to flower in October when it gets below 90 again. Still, between the squash bugs, whiteflies, and powdery mildew, it is a challenge. For example, I had 5 zucchini plants a couple of years ago (all bush varieties, to save space). It was so hot that they rarely flowered. I hand pollinated whenever possible (there are no bees when it is that hot outside; honeybees stay inside to fan their hives to keep them cool) but I rarely see any flowers. That year I harvested 4 zucchini from my 5 plants, and 2 of them were too hard (because of the heat) to eat.

I had more success with Armenian cucumbers. They are the one kind of cucumber that continues to flower in our heat (116 in the summer, cooling down to 113 by 8 p.m. ) and everyone (except for my husband!) likes them. Plus, they grow huge. Technically, they are a melon, and if left long enough on the vine, they will change color to orange and taste like a melon instead of a cucumber.

Lots of salads & steamed vegetables this month as I am on a low carb eating program (Dr.'s Orders). I love my veggies and right now there are a lot on special so I'm taking advantage. I will have used up all my meat & fish/seafood from the freezer by mid-June so I will be looking to add some proteins. I'm trying to concentrate funds on grass fed or pasture raised meats which is a lot more expensive - But - it's just me and I'm only eating about 3 to 4 ounces per serving so hopefully it won't be too bad a hit. I'm also using eggs & cheese plus my supply of canned sardines, tuna and salmon as an alternative protein so that will help as well.
Fresh local berries should be available by the end of the month so I'll be keeping my eyes open for those. Everything just looks so much more appealing at this time of year!
I won't be buying any processed items and there is rice and pasta in the pantry if I really feel the need for some carbs so the only other item I'm going to try to buy is some Ezekiel bread. I've heard a lot about sprouted breads and it's a lot lower carb so I want to give it a try.

After not being able to find a bread made in a peanut free facility, my friend pointed me towards Silverhill Bakery bread. There are several different varieties but it is a sprouted bread and I love it. I'm not sure it's low carb but it seems to be addicting.
I don't think it's Ezekial bread, either.

I made a bad miscalculation and forgot about something that is going to be
debited from my account so I will be really short of money. I had to forego going to the rock garden club's plant sale today. Well, hopefully there will be one next year.

I harvested the first rhubarb today so will do something with it. I am eating the last of last summer's sour cherry crop. After the long, cold snowy winter, it's been warm and sunny and dry here and it feels as if all the summer flowers are about a month early. Has your spring been like that, too?

Yes, we had a massive snowstorm late April (we had to go out in it and our car got stuck at the end of the driveway) and last week we had mid-summer temperatures (over 30C). We pretty much skipped right over spring this year. I must admit, I'm a wee bit nervous about summer. I think it is going to be extremely hot and humid. I work in a pioneer village, where we interpret in buildings with no electricity, we are expected to cook using firepits, open hearths or wood stoves, and wear multiple layers of clothing that cover us from head to toe. Not looking forward to this!

We had Spring for about a week and then moved right to summer! We've been sweltering for the past couple of weeks but it's supposed to be more Spring-like this week.
I love rhubarb - love sour foods like lemons and gooseberries too!
I live in dread of forgetting about some payment - I've just done the book keeping for the month and there's not a lot left. However, I do have a small cheque coming in for my first month working at my church - work I can do at home and just a few hours per week so still looking for a couple of days at some sort of office job. I'm also working at a polling station for next week's provincial election and I'll be paid for the training day on Monday as well so that will also help.
Hope your arm is a lot better.

Margie, We had unseasonably hot weather (like mid-july) but then we had rain and now it's sunny but not so hot. My arm is getting there. It is still really painful at times but I am so lucky that it is healing at all. I was told by the doctor that sometimes this kind of fracture doesn't heal at all. I think the tendons and muscles really hurt but hopefully they will be okay. The single Mom who does gardening occasionally for me weeded my flowerbeds (on credit due to my temporary cash shortage). They look so lovely!